Ali Hosseini Khamenei is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's 35-year-long rule makes him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest-serving Iranian leader of the last century after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Khamenei is a marja', a title given to the highest level of religious cleric in Twelver Shi'sm.
The Assembly of Experts, also translated as the Assembly of Experts of the Leadership or as the Council of Experts, is the deliberative body empowered to appoint the Supreme Leader of Iran. All directly elected members must first be vetted by the Guardian Council.
Mohammad Yazdi was an Iranian conservative and principlist cleric who served as the head of Judiciary System of Iran between 1989 and 1999. In 2015, he was elected to lead Iran's Assembly of Experts, defeating Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, by a vote count of 47 to 24.
The fourth Iranian Assembly of Experts election was held on 15 December 2006. The Assembly of Experts is a Council of 86 mujtahids that elect the Supreme Leader, and oversee his actions. The members of the Assembly are elected every eight years directly by the people of Iran.
Mohammad-Bagher Bagheri Kani born in 1926, is an Iranian Shia Mujtahid. He was one of 82-86 Mujtahids to be elected in the First, Second, and Fourth terms in the Assembly of Experts.
The supreme leader of Iran, also referred to as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution, but officially called the Supreme Leadership Authority, is the head of state and the highest political and religious authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The armed forces, judiciary, state radio and television, and other key government organizations such as the Guardian Council and Expediency Discernment Council are subject to the Supreme Leader. According to the constitution, the Supreme Leader delineates the general policies of the Islamic Republic, supervising the legislature, the judiciary, and the executive branches. The current lifetime officeholder, Seyyed Ali Hosseini Khameneh known as Ali Khamenei, has issued decrees and made the final decisions on the economy, the environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and other aspects of governance in Iran. Khamenei also makes the final decisions on the amount of transparency in elections, and has dismissed and reinstated presidential cabinet appointees.
Ayatollah Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari was an Iranian Shiite cleric and politician. He was a member of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Assembly of Experts from the East Azerbaijan electorate. 4th term Mojtahed Shabestari won with 671,254 and last period 743,818 votes. He was MP of Islamic Consultative Assembly in the electoral district of Tehran in the beginning of the revolution for first, second, fourth and fifth terms.
Parliamentary elections were held in Iran on 26 February 2016 to elect members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly for all seats in the 10th parliament in the Islamic Republic era and the 34th since the Persian Constitutional Revolution. A second round was held on 29 April 2016 for some constituencies where candidates failed to obtain the required minimum 25 percent of votes cast. The elected MPs served from 28 May 2016 to 27 May 2020.
The fifth Iranian Assembly of Experts election were held in Iran on 26 February 2016 to elect the members of the Assembly of Experts. All 88 members of the Assembly of Experts, who are known as mujtahids, are directly elected. The elections had been planned for 2014, but were delayed in order for the election to be held alongside the Islamic Consultative Assembly elections.
This is a summary of the electoral history of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an Iranian politician who was member of Assembly of Experts from Tehran Province since 1982 and Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council since 1989, and has been previously Chairman of the Assembly of Experts (2007–2011), President of Iran (1989–1997), and The Speaker and member of Islamic Consultative Assembly (1980–1989) from Tehran and Minister of Interior (1979–1980).
The third Iranian Assembly of Experts election was held on October 23, 1998 to elect all 86 members in 28 constituencies. 17,857,869 citizens voted in the elections, marking a 46.3% turnout.
The second Iranian Assembly of Experts election was held on October 8, 1990, to elect all 83 members in 24 constituencies. The election was the first election of the assembly since Ayatollah Khomeini's death and the election of Ali Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader. This election had the lowest turnout in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran with 37.09% of the eligible voters participating.
An election for the third Supreme Leader of Iran is scheduled to be held following the end of the current tenure of Ali Khamenei. As of October 2024, no person has been officially declared as the heir to the current leader nor as a nominee, though various sources such as Reuters and the BBC have written on potential candidates.
Sheikh Abbas Ali Akhtari was an Iranian Ayatollah. He represented the Supreme Leader of Iran in Semnan province, while also serving as the Imam of Friday Prayer in Semnan. He also represented the people in Khorasan province in the early 80's for the first term of the Islamic Consultative Assembly. He later represented the people of Tehran province for the seventh term of the Iranian Parliament. He was a member of Assembly of Experts, from February 2021 to October 2022 in the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts, after the death of Nasrallah Shah-Abadi. He was elected in the first midterm elections of the Assembly of Experts on 23 February 2020.
Mohammad Mahdi Mirbagheri is an Iranian Shia cleric, ayatollah who serves as head of Qom Academy of Islamic Sciences and a member of the Assembly of Experts. and representative of Semnan Province in the Assembly of Experts. He is also considered as one of the teachers of foreign jurisprudence.
